Rather than posting a better res image, as per request, Steven (Ford) has kindly created a three minute edit of the 2 hour long (330mb) video on L2 (numberous engineering angles on the pad, such as SSMEs, SRBs, Holddown Posts, even the camera inside the TSMs!) that covers that particular angle.

You'll get an idea of how slow mo this is as it covers 8 seconds in real time.

Those SSMEs are very, very cool and this is a very good shot of them building up thrust ahead of T-0.

The watermark is because youtubers love leeching without accreditation.

I think alot of folks still think the sparklers ignite the engines, but they actually ignite any free, unburned hydrogen under the engine nozzles so there's not an explosion down there at engine start. Just wanted to clarify that for anyone 'new' to shuttle launches.

I think alot of folks still think the sparklers ignite the engines, but they actually ignite any free, unburned hydrogen under the engine nozzles so there's not an explosion down there at engine start. Just wanted to clarify that for anyone 'new' to shuttle launches.

I think alot of folks still think the sparklers ignite the engines, but they actually ignite any free, unburned hydrogen under the engine nozzles so there's not an explosion down there at engine start. Just wanted to clarify that for anyone 'new' to shuttle launches.

So what does ignite the engines?

Big spark plugs/torch ignitors that fire in the pre-burner inside the SSME.

From the Space Shuttle Main Engine Orientation Presentation (105 pages) on L2:

"ASI SPARK IGNITERThe spark igniter generates sparks at a rate and energy level sufficient to ignite the propellants in the ASI chamber.Six igniters are used on the SSME, two each (for redundancy) in the MCC and both preburners. The spark igniter is completely self-contained in that a 26-VDC input as provided by the controller, results in a 10-kilovolt, 50 sparks per second output. The igniter is hermetically sealed and welded."

In regards to the timer on the right side of the screen, can anybody help with interpretation of it or is it REALLY technical?

Some of the confusion is perhaps that the numbers are inverted...from the bottom going up: hours, minutes, seconds, and so on for the time of day in GMT. Recall that liftoff for STS-126 was in the general vicinity of 00:55:39 GMT.